Sermons
Examining Calvinism #2 - Unconditional Election
Series: CalvinismCalvinism in the Light of the Scriptures (Part 2)
Is the Doctrine of Unconditional Election Taught in Scripture?
Introduction: A few weeks ago we began a series of lessons examining the doctrines of Calvinism in light of the Scriptures. There are five cardinal points of Calvinism. They are: 1) Total hereditary depravity, 2) Unconditional election, 3) Limited Atonement, 4) Irresistible grace, and 5) Perseverance of the saints. One or more of these points is believed by many, if not most of the evangelical churches today. This being the case, it is highly important that we seek to determine whether or not these points of doctrine are taught in the scriptures. If they are, we should all believe and support them. If they are not, then many people are in grave error and need to search the scriptures to find the truth. In this series we are doing exactly that. We are examining the doctrines of Calvinism in light of the scriptures.
Today we want to examine the doctrine of Unconditional Election. Is Unconditional Election taught in the scriptures?
Unconditional election is John Calvin’s view of predestination. Now, the Bible teaches predestination and foreordination, but the question is, does it teach John Calvin’s view? Calvin taught that God, before the foundation of the world chose, elected, or predestined certain individuals to everlasting life, and others He predestined to everlasting death. He taught that God’s choice rested solely in His own sovereign will and was not based on any foreseen response or obedience on man’s part. In other words, God’s election of the saved is an unconditional election. The Westminster Confession of Faith states it this way:
“By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death. These angels and men, thus predestinated, and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, hath chosen, in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto: and all to the praise of His glorious grace.”
In other words, those individuals that God before the creation of the world predestinated to everlasting life will go to heaven, and there is nothing they can do about it, and those individuals whom God predestinated to everlasting death will go to hell and there is nothing they can do about it.
Does the Bible teach the doctrine of unconditional election?
I. The Bible says that God shows no partiality.
A. Acts 10:34-35
1. Peter says that he perceives that God shows no partiality, but why? It is because God did not
arbitrarily choose one nation and reject another for salvation. If God did choose the Jews to be
saved, and rejected the Gentiles, then God would be showing partiality. But He didn’t do that.
Peter says, “But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by
Him.” (v. 35)
2. If God would be showing partiality if He arbitrarily chose one nation over another for salvation,
would He not be showing partiality if He arbitrarily chose one individual over another?
Indeed He would.
B. Romans 2:6-11
1. The statement “there is no partiality with God” in verse 11 is the confirmation and proof of all
that Paul has said about punishing men according to their deeds.
2. Who will receive tribulation and anguish? It is every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first
and also of the Greek. Who will receive glory, honor, and peace? Every man who works what
is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Why? There is no partiality with God.
3. What each person receives, whether Jew or Greek, is determined by the choices each one
makes. The Calvinist says what each person receives is according to the arbitrary choice that
God makes irrespective of any choice that the man makes. If what the Calvinist says is true,
that makes God a respecter of persons.
C. 1 Peter 1:17
1. Calvin says that God’s choice of whom to save was not determined by or conditioned upon any
virtuous quality or act foreseen in man. But Peter says that God judges according to each
man’s work.
2. Peter implies that if God’s choice concerning man’s salvation is independent of man’s deeds,
then God is showing partiality.
3. Since God does not show partiality, then we can be assured that He did not unconditionally
elect certain ones to be saved. Rather we can be assured that He has made it possible for all to
be saved, and His judgment of who will be saved or lost is determined by the choices each
man makes.
II. The Bible teaches that God WANTS ALL to be saved, and INVITES ALL to come so that they
can be saved.
A. 1 Tim. 2:4
1. This contradicts Calvinism because Calvin taught that God willed some men to be lost.
John Calvin wrote in his Institutes, “All are not created on equal terms, but some are
preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been
created for one or the other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to
death.”
2. Which is true, John Calvin, or the Bible?
B. Matthew 11:28
1. Jesus invites ALL sinners to come to Him that they might find rest to their souls.
2. Why would Jesus invite all to come knowing that some CANNOT come? If unconditional
election is true, then some people cannot come.
C. Mark 16:15-16
1. Jesus wants the gospel to be preached to every creature.
D. Romans 10:11-13
1. “whoever” - Whoever may come.
Phillips Brooks said that he was glad that God did not write in the sky and say “Phillips
Brooks will be saved,” because God may have had another person in mind by the name of
Phillips Brooks. But he was glad that God said, “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” because he knew “whosoever” meant him.
III. The Bible teaches that man has a free will.
A. According to Calvin’s teachings man does not have a free will, but rather man does only what
God has decreed. The Calvinists teach that each one’s salvation is solely God’s choice and not
man’s.
B. Matthew 23:37
1. Here is the Son of God stating His will. He wants the people of Jerusalem to repent so He can
gather them together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But He didn’t do what He
desired to do. Why? The passage says it was because “you were not willing.” They did not
come to Jesus, not because of what God willed, but because of what the people willed.
The people of Jerusalem had a free will.
C. John 5:39-40
1. These people did not have life. Why? They were not willing to come to Jesus. They had a free
will.
2. They did not have life because of the choice they made, not because of the choice God made.
D. Ezekiel 18:23, 30-32
1. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. His will is that they turn and live. The reason
they die is because they do not choose to turn. Man has a free-will.
E. Jeremiah 18:7-10
1. Why does God relent (change His mind) concerning what He thought to bring upon a nation,
whether it is to destroy it, or to build it? It is because of the free-will choices the people of that
nation makes.
a. Why did God “relent from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon” the people of
Nineveh? They repented and turned from their evil way. Jonah 3:4-10
2. God will punish or bless men depending on how they respond to Him. Man has a fee-will.
Conclusion: What we have seen is that the Bible teaches that God does not show partiality. But if the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election is true then God does show partiality.
We have seen that the Bible teaches that God desires all men to be saved. But if the doctrine of unconditional election is true, then God willed some men to be lost.
We have seen that the Bible teaches that Jesus invites all sinners to come to Him to be saved, but if the doctrine of unconditional election is true then salvation is not for all, but only for those whom God unconditionally elected, and therefore, some cannot come.
We have also seen that the Bible teaches that man has a free will, the ability to choose right from wrong. But if the doctrine of unconditional election is true then man is just a puppet in the hand of God with no free will of his own.
All of this proves that the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election is not taught in scripture.
